What to do when you run out of children’s songs

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What to do when you run out of children’s songs

If you are anything like me, you can only seem to hold three or four children’s songs in your head at any time. I can’t stand listening to children’s music on the radio or at home either, so my repertoire is largely what I remember from childhood or overhear from others. After the twentieth time singing Old MacDonald, I had to find something new.

Do sheep and goats make different noises? I realized that I don’t think they do halfway into the verse about them

At first, I started adding verses.

Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o

And on this farm he had an Ostrich, e-i-e-i-o

With a peck peck here, and a peck peck there

Here a peck, there a peck, everywhere a peck peck

Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o

After exhausting every animal I could think of and from the Bronx Zoo’s website, I got even more desperate. This is when I found inspiration from the decor in the boys’ room. It is entirely dinosaur themed. I began adding dinosaurs into OldMacDonald’s farm.

Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o

And on this farm he had a T-Rex, e-i-e-i-o

With a roar roar here, and a roar roar there

Here a roar, there a roar, everywhere a roar roar

Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o

At this point I realized that either Old MacDonald was a liar or he was working for a top secret agency. So instead, to broaden the boys’ cultural knowledge, I modified the entire premise. This led me to:

Old John Hammond had a park, e-i-e-i-o

And on this park he had a Brachiosaurus, e-i-e-i-o

With a sneeze sneeze here, and a sneeze sneeze there

Here a sneeze, there a sneeze, everywhere a sneeze sneeze

Old John Hammond had a park, e-i-e-i-o

And thus were the following verses born.

T-Rex: Roar

Velociraptor: Honk

Dilophosaurus: Spit

Triceratops: Moan

Gallimimus: Jump

Parasaurolophus: Butt

Now this still didn’t carry us through a full diaper changing, so more context and characters were needed, so I went beyond the dinosaurs and added the best characters.

Jeff Goldblum: Life will find a way

Samuel L Jackson: Hold on to your butts

Newman from Seinfeld: Ha ha ha, you didn’t say the magic word

Raptor guy: Clever Girl

Sure, these stretch the limits of decent phrasing in the song, but the boys seem to appreciate them. Creativity is very important to children. Mine will either be dinosaur experts by two, or get sick of daddy’s bizarre sense of humor by then. Or most likely both.